The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-02-02
Editor Hall Of the Aroostook Herald,

sition unless it comes from the New Bruins
wick railway people. "And if they come
here, says Mr.. Hall, 81 shall ask that COM
mittee by what right foreign corporation
Legislature of Maine." A direct line might
not suit the Province people, but it would aid
immensely in developing Aroostook. /
think we shall ask the Legislature to allow
the county of Aroostook to loan its credit to
the enterprise. There is another point. In
case there should be trouble over the fisher
les line into Aroostook would be military
necessity. Why, in 1868 the Legislature of
this State memorialized Congress that the
Aroosto0k frontier was defenceless, and
that military railroad was a necessity.
Still later, when Congress took no notice of
this memorial the Maine Legislature offered
to help build such a road. Now the Cana
dians aided by liberal subsidies, have built
q line of road all along our northeastern
frontiers, from Vanceboro up around to Rob-
binston, near Fort Kent" Mr.. Hall is very
enthusiastic over the proposed direct line.
Convict Law.
The carriage and harness manufacturers
met Warden Bean and Prison Inspectors
Porter, Bean and 0sgood before the State
prison committee to-day. The hearing was
long and interesting
f. H. Thompson of Portland made the
first argument for the carriage and harness
manufacturers. He began with the assump-
tion that so much complaint as had been al
ready made by the manufacturers could not
have been caused by fancied wrongs. He
admitted that the convicts must be employed
at something. But while one convict is en-
ployed in trade, an honest workman out
side is threwn out of employment, So we
protest against the use of the whole power
of the State to break down the carriage and
harness makers alone. Mr.. Thompson then
read the ADVERT rements which the propri-
etor of the Horse and Carriage Mart of Port
land had inserted in the papers, promising
to sell State Prison goods cheaper than other
goods, because they were made by convlcts.
Mr.. Thompson cited an instance where the
State Prison had beat the price of 1925
carriage down to $3.50. The statement that
only 8 or 10 per cent of Prison goods are
sold, he said, would not apply to Portland
where u or 10 carriages are received from
the Prison every week. This would make
the sale of other carriages from 90 to l3O
week, which is more than the private manu-
facturers. Mr.. Thompson suggested that
the convicts be put to werk on different
articles at different branches of trade. They
might make benches, tables, wash boards,
boxes, express wagon bodies, which are sold
unfinished all over the State. Collins and
caskets would be suitable articles for convict
labor, ''as the man who would ride in a
State Prison carriage certainly could not OBJ
ject to being buried in a State prison coffin"
Mr.. Thompson asserted that since 1870 there
had been falling off of 80 per cent.inthe car
riage business of the free w0rkmen of Maine,
while, with the increase OF population, the
business should have doubled
Mr.. Edward I'll. Dunn of Portland, an old
harness manufacturer, next appeared. He
was employing 40 hands during 1875. Dur
ing the same year Maine State Prison har-
nesses were put on sale next door to him.
In 1876 he moved to Boston, as his trade had
extended, taking 35 of his men. His trade
had been worked up for many years, and
had extended through Massachusetts and
Rhode Island. The Maine State Prison
harnesses were at this time just beginning to
be advertised and sold as the best harnesses
in the world for the price. At the same
time large harness firm in Massachusetts
made arrangements with the State Prison of
that State for certain number OF convict
harness makers, and began to put their con-
vict made harnesses on the market With
this competition his business went down, he
lost 70 per cent. of it, and his men were
thrown out of employment Not over ten OF
them have succeeded in finding other places
to work at harness making. Mr.. Dunn, hav-
ing lost his business, came back to Portland,
where he makes few harnesses now, but
only few. The competition of Maine
State Prison harnesses is so great there is no
profit. There are now he thought, twenty
harness makers in Portland who are idle on
account of prison competition.
Mr.. II. b. Jordan, of Portland, followed
Mr.. Dunn. Mr.. Jordan said that the car
riage business had gone down in Maine since
the competitor with the Prison began. In
Portland alone about 100 men were
employedlin the harness businessnd. To-day
only about 20men are employed in the har-
ness business in the whole city of Portland.
NTo of
told of the hardships caused directly by .pris-
on competition, and cited instances in Port
land where free labOrers had seen the
work taken from them by goods from Thom-
aston.
Mr.. Zenas Thompson. Jr., explained the
effects of the competition. Wien inspector
Bean called attention to an advertisement in
which be (Mr. Thompson) agreed to sell bet
ter goods for less price than could the Prison,
Mr.. Thompson readily explained that the
goods he advertised he did not make himself
but brought from out OF the state. Mr..
Thompson advocated policy OF employing
some of the convicts at making shoes, others
at making axes or scythes.
Mr. William Iarkin, a skilled harness
manufacturer of Portland, told how he had
been employed by Mr.. Dunn, and how he
had lost his place when prison competition
began to tell. He found work at Ports
mouth, but soon an agent OF the Maine State
Prison appeared, and by underSelling local
manufacturers forced the man Tor whom ne
(Larkin) worked to discharge four men al
most Immediately. Mr.. Larkin thought the
conyicts might be set to making whips, as
none are made in Maine.
Letters were presented from men in Port
land and various parts of the State relating
instances of the harshness of prison compe-
tition
Mr. f. o. Bailey, of the Horse and Car
riage Mart Portland, next spoke, as the har-
ness and carriage manufacturers had pre-
sented their case. He said that the oppos1-
tiOn of the carriage men to him was nothing
new. He could not state the number of
prison carriages and sleighs received by him
and sold. He did not think that on an av-
erage it was over or 10 per cent. OF the
other carriages and sleighs sold in Portland,
although of course some weeks he sold more
than this amount. Last year he sold not
over fifty prison harnesses. Mr., Bailey
thought the real trouble was with the carri-
ages and harnesses brought in from out the
State At least twelve or fifteen thousand
carriages were brought into Maine last year.
In the matter of harnesses, Mr.. Bailey was
very free to say that he thought 1t was not
the State prison that caused the harness
makers to lose ground, but their own lack OF
enterprise. Machine stitching has come into
use, and the hand stitchers have been crowd
ed out. One New Jersey firm, Peters, Cal
houn & Co., send into Maine. every year
hundreds of machine made harnesses. AS
to the obnoxious advertisements which ap-
peared in the papers, Mr.. Bailey said he was
personally responsible for them, and that
the prison officials had nothing to do with It,
Warden Bean next answered for the
prison. He laid stress on the fact that he
| did not come as an antagonist of the gentle
| men who had appeared. He rather came tc
| make with them an inquiry into the subject
| to see what, if anything, could be done to
remedy the difficulty if any existed. He
| proposed to show just what the.prison was
| doing. 'It is not question:" he said, TT
| see how much we can make, but how little
| we can lose" Five years ago portion o.
| the convicts were making boots and shoes
| They earned at it % to cents per day eacl
| less than the cost Of their board. So shoe
| making was abandoned. For the five year.
| since, the average number of convicts yearl,
| has been 1861 the average number employed
! in the carriage department yearly has beel
| 90, and in the harness department 38, leavin!
| 81 non producers, employed at cooking
| cleaning, and other jobs about the prison
Now for the year ending Nov. 80, 1886, tn
production and sums realized from sale
| were as follows:
Carriage Department.
For 255 buggies, wagons, ETC., with
one hearSe. ,.....-...... Szo, ,o3Z. W
For 159 sleighs, jumpers, cutters, etc.. $3.50. Q
For various repairs done. .............. 6,492.8
Total sales from carriage dept. go. .S44 ,o19.5
Harness Department.
22.S2.................... s2S, 1864
odd jobs and repairing. -. ............. 2,173.9
with some discounts for Invoices -. 945.e